Mean Girls

Synopsis

Cady Heron is a cultural blank slate when she first sets foot on the grounds of North Shore High School in a small town outside of Chicago, Illinois. After living in Africa, Cady, now a junior, has no idea how "wild" things can be in civilization until she crosses paths with one of the meanest species of all, the "Queen Bee," who at this...

Production Details

Synopsis

Cady Heron is a cultural blank slate when she first sets foot on the grounds of North Shore High School in a small town outside of Chicago, Illinois. After living in Africa, Cady, now a junior, has no idea how "wild" things can be in civilization until she crosses paths with one of the meanest species of all, the "Queen Bee," who at this particular high school is the cool and calculating Regina George. But Cady doesn't just cross paths with this Queen Bee--she really stings her when she falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels. Now Regina is set to sting back by pretending to still like Aaron so he won't go out with Cady, all the while pretending to be her friend. With no choice but to use the same M.O. to stay in the game, the "Girl World" one-upmanship escalates until the entire school gets dragged into a first-class mean-fest.

Production Details

Run Time

1 hr. 37 min.

In Cinemas

Friday, 18 June, 2004

Certificate & Consumer Advice

(12A), Contains moderate language, sex and drugs references

Genre

Comedy

Producer(s)

Lorne Michaels

Director(s)

Mark S. Waters

Writer(s)

Tina Fey

Studio

U.I.P.

Format(s)

2D

SHOWTIMES

Mean Girls

Consistently amusing, Mean Girls, about teen queen angst and the horrors of high school, will hit home with its target audience while providing plenty of knowing laughs for adults and plenty to ogle for teenage boys.

Story

If you've seen Heathers, Clueless or Jawbreaker, then you've seen Mean Girls. Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is the new girl, having moved from Africa where she was raised (one of many comic head-scratchers that goes nowhere), and now trying to win

friends in a hostile new high school environment. On the verge of becoming--gasp!--friends with two geeks, one gay and one Goth, she is invited to join ''The Plastics'' (Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried), the coolest girls on campus. When she develops an unfortunate crush on the head Plastics' ex-boyfriend (Jonathan Bennett), the girls declare war on each other and all hell breaks loose. Saturday Night Live regulars Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows and Ana Gasteyer fill in the adult roles, and Fey wrote the script as well.

Acting

Lohan has star power in spades, and enough going on behind the eyes to at least suggest the inner life and back story absent from the script. She conveys Cady's

sudden character changes with aplomb, and her comic timing is excellent. McAdams makes the biggest impression with the showiest ''Plastics'' role and is certainly someone to watch for in the future. Her Regina George is one of the funniest, nastiest high school girls since Election's Tracy Flick. Bennett is likeable in a one-note jock role, and Daniel Franzese and Lizzy Caplan are similarly stereotyped as the Gay

and the Goth, respectively. Of the adults, Poehler,

who is always funny, stands out as Regina's alcoholic, mini-skirted mother. Fey wisely and selflessly wrote herself a straight-man role as the calculus teacher. And Meadows as the principal, quite simply, has never

been funnier. Whether he has ever been funny before is another question.

Direction

To take on a project already burdened with two strikes--Teen Comedy and SNL Movie--is either a bold move or career suicide, but director Mark S. Waters doesn't need to worry. He does a nice job of staying out of the way, and tells the story simply without relying too heavily on fruit-flavored set design, drowning every scene in music, or ruining the witty laughs with too much slapstick. And it is a very witty script, sharply observed and rich in detail. (The Halloween party scene, showing every single girl wearing lingerie and a different set of animal ears, stands out.) Fey adapted sociologist Rosalind Wiseman's nonfiction

best-seller Queen Bees & Wannabees, and the interaction between the various species of teen is note perfect. That said, Fey seems to have been given a lot of leeway due to her stature on SNL, and it shows. One example: everyone has trouble pronouncing

Cady's name, which wasn't funny the first time and still isn't 500 times later. The movie also attempts to impart a message of female solidarity, but by building the characters on the same cookie-cutter stereotypes it denounces, its girl power is undermined. Plus, the movie seems cut to within an inch of its life. If it is possible for a comedy to move too quickly, Mean Girls does, as Waters furiously connects the dots without consideration for the characters or the audience. It's like watching schizophrenics at a track meet--but maybe that's the point.

Bottom Line

Well shy of classic, Mean Girls lacks both Heathers' and Election's commitment to its darker instincts and Clueless' indelible characterizations, but it's still probably the best teen comedy in years, and certainly the best SNL movie since Tommy Boy. Faint praise? Like, totally.

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